2017 a shocker for North Perth

BAYSWATER earned bragging rights this week after landing the most house sales across the metropolitan region; in what was a tough market to jag a sale.

But it’s Inglewood and Leederville that have provided the real shine over the 12 months, with their median house prices both rising 7.5 per cent over the year ($814,125 and $865,000 respectively) while the rest of Perth was down by nearly 3 per cent.

Bayswater’s 11 sales this week helped push its $601,000 median into the black for the quarter, lifting 2 per cent (although over the year it’s slid more than 5 per cent).

Signs such as these have given REIWA confidence the local property market may be pretty darned close to the bottom of the cycle (which will give pres Hayden Groves some comfort after three vain stabs at predicting it previously).

Perhaps given Mr Groves’ less than stellar prophesising, this time REIWA rolled out deputy president Damian Collins to declare a minor 0.6 per cent decline was a slowing and “positive” news.

“We’ve already seen steady discounting levels over the six months, with the percentage of sellers who have had to reduce their asking price holding at around 54 per cent,” Mr Collins said.

“Additionally, the amount those that have had to discount by has levelled off at approximately 6.5 per cent, which is likely had a positive effect on the median house price.”

Mr Collins says listings have stabilised a bit, although stock’s still higher than average.

But sales slowed some 14 per cent.

Locally Maylands isn’t tracking too well, losing another 3.13 per cent off values for the quarter to make a pretty dreary 7.2 per cent dip into the red this year, landing on an average $630,000. It’s apartment sales were pretty steady to give it some good news, as they finished up 1.5 per cent across the year.

Central Perth also dropped almost 2 per cent this quarter to $840,000, although its yearly outlook is a bit of a rosy 2.4 per cent up, with units holding their 2.5 per cent.

It was a bit of a shocker for North Perth residents, who over the last year have seen the value of their houses lose 11 per cent.

That equates to a drop in median price from $900,000 to just $801,250, which may explain why there’s been a slight upswing in sales compared to last year.